Neowiz burns 5 billion won in shares to preserve Lies of P DNA

| NBNTV = Jeong Dong-jin | Neowiz has appointed Park Seong-jun, head of its new game development group and a veteran developer, as its new co-CEO. This marks the first time since the company's founding in 1997 that a developer has been appointed to such a position. The industry is closely watching this decisive move to place a hands-on development leader at the helm of management.

After experiencing significant growing pains under its previous studio-independent operating system, Neowiz proved its global potential through the success of Lies of P. The earnings released on August 12 reflect more than just short-term profit and loss; they demonstrate a strategic commitment to evolving into a global IP holder by continuously developing proven in-house IPs.

The provisional second-quarter results disclosed on August 12 (revenue of 102.1 billion won, operating profit of 7.9 billion won) highlighted both Neowiz's achievements and its upcoming challenges. Driven by Brown Dust 2 and Cats & Soup, the mobile division's revenue reached 53.2 billion won, growing 21% year-on-year and providing a solid foundation for the company's performance.

Conversely, the PC and console division recorded 37.3 billion won in revenue (a 35% decrease year-on-year) as sales for Lies of P stabilized. This result underscores the urgent need to build a diversified lineup to reduce reliance on a single major IP and to bridge the gap before the release of upcoming titles.

Neowiz has chosen a direct approach to address these challenges by strengthening development leadership. By placing Park, who led the success of Lies of P, at the forefront, the company aims to significantly shorten decision-making stages for new titles and ensure high production quality across the entire organization.

The transition to a co-CEO system under Park is designed to transplant the development know-how gained from Lies of P into the company-wide production process, creating a systematic foundation to deliver high-quality new titles that meet global standards.

At the same time, the company is accelerating efforts to strengthen its fundamentals through genre and platform diversification. It has solidified its mobile casual profit base by absorbing Hi-Idea—the developer of Cats & Soup, which has recorded 60 million cumulative global downloads—into its headquarters. Additionally, it has bolstered its Western publishing capabilities by recruiting Chris Chung, former Wargaming executive and current head of the global business group.

Neowiz is currently preparing a diverse pipeline for global audiences, including the Lies of P sequel and DLC, the subculture RPG project FN, the soulslike project Windy, and the story-driven project Rubicon.

Furthermore, the resolution passed on August 12 to acquire and completely cancel 5 billion won worth of treasury shares represents a strong commitment to transparent management and enhancing shareholder value by reducing the number of outstanding shares. Industry observers are watching to see if these bold moves—combining treasury share cancellation with a leadership shift toward development—will drive structural improvements and an earnings rebound in the second half of the year.

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